The scoresheet reads that David Banfield and Don Vanmassenhover refereed the game between the Islanders and Leafs at the Coliseum tonight but if you were watching you saw that the officiating actually took a night off. During the second period, the referees called a high stick on Toronto’s Cody Fransen when Michael Grabner was hit in the face. Grabner was actually hit in the face with the puck, Fransen’s stick going no where near Grabner’s head.

Even more egregious was a call late in the third period with the Islanders down 4-3 with two minutes to go. Joffrey Lupul and John Tavares were battling pretty hard for the puck and the play ended with Tavares crashing to the ice after Lupul cross checking him in the face. Tavares was hit with a diving penalty and Lupul with a minor for the cross check, a pretty amazing negation of what should have been an Islanders’ power play. It’s hard to figure out how there’s a dive involved when the player “diving” nearly fell back and slammed his head on the ice. The call didn’t decide the game but severely hampered the Islanders’ efforts to find an equalizer. Islanders assistant coach Doug Weight wasn’t pleased with the call, screaming at the refs from the Islanders’ bench.

If we’re lip reading, I think that’s “you [flipped] up!”

At the end of the game, Weight was still fuming but thought better of getting in the face of any of the refs. He grabbed a water bottle and sprayed the ice but walked to the locker room instead of escalating things.